Under the Influence: John Deakin, Photography & the Lure of Soho

With dozens of his most compelling images, letters and contact sheets, it is an evocative record of life in and around the four parallels of Wardour, Dean, Frith and Greek streets in the 1950s and 1960s, the backdrop for a creative and maverick photographer ‘whose pictures take you by the scruff of the neck and insist that you see’.

Loved and loathed in equal measure, Deakin was a legendary member of the quarter’s bohemian crowd of artists and misfits, enjoying a certain louche glamour as an ex-Vogue photographer. His circle included the painters Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, the writers Dylan Thomas and Jeffrey Bernard, and the socialite Henrietta Moraes and Muriel Belcher, proprietor of fabled drinking den the Colony Room.

Deakin photographed these and other celebrated personalities alongside lesser-known Soho figures of the day. Artisans and tradesmen, from the ice-seller to the under-chef, newspaper vendor, street sweeper, vagrants and outsiders – all were captured by his democratic, equitable lens. You can find out more at www.artbookspublishing.co.uk.